‘Blitz spirit’ may have brushed over issues and pandemic comes with other problems, experts say
At the beginning of the second world war, fears were high about the public’s mental resilience, with the committee of imperial defence identifying stoicism “as the core defence against the stress of aerial bombardment”.
But in the face of the unrelenting bombardment of the blitz, the government feared the population could develop a so-called “shelter mentality”, which could make workers so anxious it would undermine national production.